Equipment assembly may at times involve spaces or gaps between components, that is, dimensional differences between components at fastening points. This can be caused by design requirements, assembly clearances or stacked tolerances, for example. The gaps may be minimal or significant, on the order of many tens of millimeters.
Assembly of equipment components can be adversely affected by such gaps. Assembly of components with a gap or gaps between them is generally not consistent with proper operation of the equipment, or may generate undesirable loads, stresses or distortion as each gap is closed by bolt forces.
In order to eliminate such gaps it is necessary to either design and manufacture components accordingly, which can be time consuming and relatively expensive, in the alternative, use devices to accommodate the gap while providing structural integrity.
Representative of the art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,906 (1987) to Rückert et al. which discloses a device for the clamping connection of structural parts which are spaced apart from each other by means of a spacer disk arranged within said space and resting by its outer broad side against one structural part.
Also representative of the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,122 to Leicht et al. which discloses a twin cone device for aligning holes in components to be joined. The device comprises a set of conical structures joined by a bolt.
Reference is also made to co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/267,071 filed Oct. 7, 2002 which discloses a tolerance compensating mounting device.
The prior art does not solve the problem of compensating for a significant gap between components while simultaneously joining the components in a properly torqued manner using a connector having a jack-like action without inducing undesirable stresses in the components.
What is needed is a device that completely spans a gap between components to be joined using a threaded bushing cooperatively engaged with an adapter while simultaneously connecting the components. What is needed is a connector having a jack-like action that automatically compensates for a gap between mounting surfaces during installation. The present invention meets these needs.